Monogatari
by s' old fic
Summary: A collection of oneshots. Card Captor Sakura, Fruits Basket, Shaman King, Inuyasha, Sakura Taisen, Lillia and Treize, Gintama, Bleach, etc.
1. the end

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The End [ Eriol and Tomoyo (CCS) ]

**For:**  Jae 

**Word Count:** 100

**Note:** I suck, and I haven't written ExT in ages. My apologies, Miss Jae.

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When she comes home with him, he will show her every corner of the house. Everything will charm her silly --- the garden well and its ivy curtain, the crumbly honey biscuits, the menagerie in the sky.  
  
When he sits with her and tells her his story, she will listen.  
  
When he reaches for her in the dark, she will come soft like a dream. He will bury fingers in her hair and breathe her in.   
  
Realize what he lived all those years for.  
  
When she comes home with him, he will ask her to stay.   
  
She will say yes.

[ e n d ]


	2. red

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Red [ Eriol and Tomoyo (CCS) ]

**For:**  Meemee

**Word Count:** 100

**Note:** Something from Kanaete (mmmm chapter eight? I think) that will never get written properly because that fic is TEH dead. X3 Hope this'll do for now, Mee-chan.

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_Your mother will kill me_, he murmurs against her neck, and she lets out a laugh that sounds nothing like a laugh. There are tears everywhere --- on the pillow, the front of his sweater, on his skin, when he trails his fingers down her face. She doesn't realize where they're coming from. (_Oh dear_. She dabs at the soaked coverlet.)   
  
The sky outside her window turns red for a brief, shining moment.  
  
When he touches his lips to her forehead for the last time, her hand guides his own to the hollow in her chest, and keeps it there.  
  
  


[ e n d ]


	3. reverie

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Reverie [ Syaoran and Sakura (CCS) ]

**For:**  Wen

**Word Count:** 100

**Note:** *sobs uncontrollably*

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(Her lips lift in a grin. _Syaoran, makka da yo._)  
  
Sometimes he finds himself looking at her the way he looked at her when they were children --- enthralled, pink-cheeked, feverish. All those years sitting behind her, pretending, hoping she would turn around and look at him too --- and now _this_, looking into her eyes and seeing only himself in them.  How did things get from that point to this? He idly ponders this, wonders whom to thank, but then she gently angles her mouth against his, leaving no more room for thought.  
  
(Her voice is soft. _Syaoran, daisuki._)  
  
  


[ e n d ]


	4. mirror

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Mirror [ Miroku and Sango (Inuyasha) ]

**For:**  Eva

**Word Count:** 134

**Note:** Aaagh. Pretend Miroku says things like this. =_=;

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Sometimes, she feels the urge to borrow Kagome's pocket mirror or look in still water, and stare at her reflection.   
  
Just to see what he sees in her when he says she's beautiful.   
  
Sometimes she thinks he says this in jest, or to catch her off guard, but sometimes she isn't sure. He always makes it difficult to be sure. Even now, as he smiles and offers to hold Kirara so she can easily redo the tie that holds Hiraikotsu, he exudes innocence that isn't quite like innocence.   
  
She hands him Kirara anyway.  
  
_You're a lucky fellow_, he murmurs to the purring cat in his arms, _stuck with a pretty girl like Sango_.   
  
In lieu of mirrors and still water, she gazes at herself in his eyes.  
  
Part of her thinks she understands now.  
  
  


[ e n d ]


	5. white day

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White Day [ Yoh and Anna (Shaman King) ]

**For:**  Pei Yi

**Word Count:** 324

**Note:**  Too long for drabble. Pei Yi dahling, if this is revenge, I don't think it's working. ^^ You only gave me a reason to torture everyone with bad fic, and torture everyone I will! Fic by someone who knows virtually nothing about Mankin! I should've said no, but I couldn't resist the opportunity. *blows kisses* Ph33r.

[edit] I wrote this before I managed to watch the first n episodes of the series.  I apologize for contributing to the deluge of bad Mankin fanfic on ff.net. *is ashamed*

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On White Day, instead of flowers or candy or a teddy bear or a handmade card, Yoh decided to do an extra ten of everything on his training module.   
  
When he told Manta this, the latter shot him a look of abject horror, as if he just said he was contemplating suicide. (Amidamaru later commented it probably _was_ suicide, but could do nothing to dissuade his master.)  
  
When the sun rose the next day, out they went --- Yoh with his headphones, Anna with her stopwatch. She tucked it into her pocket as she watched him stretch. He flexed his arms high above his head, took a deep breath, let it out. "Anna."  
  
Her gaze shifted to his face.  
  
Yoh stared at her dumbly for a moment. He forgot to plan _this_ part.  
  
"You run twenty rounds around the village," she said, matter-of-factly, as if all people got up at dawn and ran a hundred miles before breakfast.   
  
That was his cue. His White Day surprise. "Twenty?  I'll do _thirty_!"  
  
Anna wasn't amazed. She didn't even try to look impressed. She only folded her arms and looked like she always did --- disinterested. "You'll do forty then, if you're so enthusiastic about it."   
  
For a moment Yoh stood frozen, wondering if he should keel over or kick himself, but something about the sunshine and the way Anna looked in it reminded him that some things he just had to do. Even if they killed him.   
  
Just because.   
  
He grinned. "All right, I'll do forty."  
  
She pulled out the stopwatch, glanced at it, then looked back at him. This time her gaze looked different. It was almost soft. "You do that."  
  
Still grinning, Yoh clamped his headphones over his ears, turned on his MD player, and began to jog. His White Day gift, he decided, turned out to be a good idea after all.   
  
But next year he was definitely getting her flowers.  
  


[ e n d ]


	6. houshisama

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Houshi-sama [ Miroku (Inuyasha) ]

**For:**  Eva

**Word Count:** 100

**Note:**  I didn't really want to cut it short, but I had no choice. ^.^ I might go trim the first one, but not today.

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Life was short.   
  
Particularly Miroku's.  
  
He was a man pressed for time, so he sought and relished the smallest pleasures.  
  
Inuyasha said his idea of bliss (fondling girls' backsides) was nothing but perversion, so Miroku offered to explain the joy of feeling up a young maiden --- and put a hand on Sango's rear to demonstrate. But before he could even begin, Hiraikotsu met Monk, sending him flying over the hill.  
  
Life was short.   
  
But he never let that stop him, did he?  
  
Smiling in anticipation of happiness to come, Miroku closed his eyes and braced himself for the fall.

[ e n d ]


	7. puzzle

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Puzzle [ Koganei Kaoru (Recca no Honou) ]

**For:**  Kim

**Word Count:** 100

**Note:**  Not very Koganei-ish Koganei-kun, I think. Kiimu~~ ;___;

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Kaoru loves puzzles.   
  
He can solve one in seconds, and in a hundred different ways --- and could easily find another hundred, if he wanted to. Unlike most people, Kaoru doesn't pause to think; he rushes headlong into things, lets his fingers fly on their own accord. He hums. He thinks about math homework, soccer, video games, ice cream. He lets things come to him, like a memory of Yanagi, wide-eyed, saying _Koganei-kun is so smart_. The time it takes him to smile is enough for the last few pieces to fall into place.   
  
Another puzzle, de-puzzled.  
  
It puzzles him.

[ e n d ]


	8. sleep

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Sleep [ Yoh and Anna (Shaman King) ]

**Word Count:** 76

**Note:**  Something I scribbled in less than ten minutes.  Unedited.

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Sleeping with him means having an arm carelessly flung over her waist, an occasional elbow jabbing her side, warm breath against her nape, fingers tangled in her hair.  Sleep makes him forget the distance he has to keep --- which would ordinarily warrant a curse and a good kicking out of bed --- but she never stirs. Nighttime is quiet, full of secrets. (Like her self snuggling against his prone form, thinking how nice, how warm.)

[ e n d ]


	9. midnight

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Midnight [ Anna (Shaman King) ]

**Word Count:** 140

**Note:**  Something I scribbled in less than ten minutes.  Edited, but will probably be edited again soon.

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She lies awake, absently touching the side of the futon where he should be. The faint ticking of the clock in the hallway is drowned out by so many strange sounds (stairs creaking, glasses tinkling --- the spirits bustle through the house as though it were morning).  
  
She imagines him stumbling through the door, sheepish and deeply apologetic, and decides to think of something to say to him.   
  
Preferably something painful.   
  
(Tamao's face twisted with worry. _Anna-sama, I summoned the spirits this morning and they told me Yoh-sama is_--)   
  
Her nails dig into the cushion.   
  
Somewhere in the house a screen slides open, then closes. 

(The noises do not calm down. It is not him.)   
  
After a moment's hesitation, she sits up, letting the blankets pool at her feet, and reaches up to string the beads around her neck.

[ e n d ]


	10. sun

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Sun ( Reni and Iris [Sakura Taisen] )

**Word Count:** 174

**Posted:** 2003.6.24

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After squirming and twisting and yelping helplessly for fifteen minutes, Hund finally resigned himself to the fact that the hand on his leash was never going to let go, and that the scene before him (birds, birds, thousands of them!) was something he could never take part in.

Iris was standing near the shore, her hair spun gold under the sun, laughing as the birds drifted about her, fought for the throne of her shoulder, pecked at the birdseed she cupped in her palm.  Hund hungrily took in the sunshine and the fowl, mournfully raised his eyes to his master, and whined.

His master was not even looking at him.  "Hund," Reni softly said, "look at Iris.  She's shining."

With a scream of laughter Iris showered the seed in the air, letting the birds ruffle her skirt, her hair, as they swept up to take the treat.  In that sudden rain of feathers, Iris turned to smile at them, and for once Hund felt he understood.

She was the sun, and she was beautiful.

[ e n d ]


	11. visit

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Visit ( Haku and Chihiro [Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi] )

Standard disclaimers apply.

**Word Count:** 555

**Posted:** 2003.1.21

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Chihiro looked up from her notebook, blinking slightly in the lamplight, and listened.

A music box was playing.

She slowly turned around in her seat, gently setting her pen down on the tabletop. The flat she lived in was barely large enough to house her, but in spite of that she crammed its corners with little trinkets and souvenirs, such as the music box she kept on the shelf wedged between the shoe rack and the stove.

That same music box was playing now.

She tiptoed to the door, gingerly lifted the noren, and peeked outside. Standing in the genkan was a tall dark-haired boy about her age, dressed in robes of white, holding the music box in his palm. His green eyes watched the small crank turn, wide with fascination, before lifting to meet her bemused gaze.

Chihiro grinned. "Hi there."

He bowed politely. It was one habit he could never rid himself of. "Pardon the intrusion."

"Intrude as you please." She stepped out into the corridor, not bothering to hide her pleasure at seeing him. She loved having him visit her --- he had always been one of her most favorite people, and even though he came from another world, he seemed to fit in perfectly with the pastel curtains and the scratched pots and the strewn sneakers. "Finally got off work?"

"They were gracious enough to give me some time to rest." His eyes were back on the music box. "So naturally I came to see you."

"That's very sweet."

"Is it." A small smile lifted his lips. "And how are the 'papers'?"

"Dreadful." Chihiro made a face. "I'm not even halfway through the first one."

"Hmmm."

"But I'll be able to finish them tonight, I think. It depends."

The musicbox stopped playing. His fingers closed around it lightly, lingering for a moment, before he reached out to place it on the shelf where it belonged.

"Come up now, Haku." It sounded more like a plea than a command. She held out a hand as if to guide him, when he had been in her flat so many times that he knew its nooks and crannies better than she ever possibly could. "I'll make us some tea and serve you cheap biscuits and bore you to death about my paper."

He smiled, taking her proffered hand and stepping into the hall. "I'm afraid I didn't bring anything with me today. It was terribly impolite of me to visit without a token of some sort."

"You don't need to bring anything." She shook her head, making her ponytail flap in the air. "I don't even need anything. Just seeing you is..."

"'Is'?" They had stopped in their tracks, and he turned his gaze full on her, making it even more difficult for her to continue.

"Is...is enough for me, I mean. You know." Embarrassed, she gave their linked hands a little shake.

"No, I don't think I know."

"Hakuuu."

He laughed, and she opened her mouth to say more, but right then and there --- in the small corridor of her cramped flat, between the rusty refrigerator and the closet with its small tin mobile hovering dangerously close to their heads, he bent down and gently kissed her, making it clear that whatever it was she wanted to say, he understood very well.

[ e n d ]


	12. poem

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Poem  ( Hiro and Kisa [Fruits Basket] )**  
  
**

**Word Count: **99****

**Posted: **2003.8.8****

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Kisa had eyes the color of the sunset.  He heard the girls snicker about it once (_she should've picked a different color for contacts!),_ and felt so mad, he wanted to punch them.  Kisa had beautiful eyes.  He wrote poems about them.  

She never knew.

 "Hurry up, Hiro-chan," she pleaded, "the third bell rang."  

He made a big show of looking through his locker.  "You go ahead."

"But…"

"I'll be right there."  He nudged her shoulder, gently.  "Go."

She ran down the sunlit corridor.    

Sunset-colored eyes, Hiro dreamily thought, moving to Kisa's locker and furtively slipping the envelope inside.           

[ e n d ]


	13. lettuce

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Lettuce  ( Yuki and Tohru [Fruits Basket] )

**Word Count: **100

**Posted:** 2003.8.15

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The one good thing about his Juunishi form --- if Yuki _had_ to say something good about it --- was the change in perspective.  Ordinary things were seen in a different light, were strangely beautiful.

 "Take lettuce, for example."  The mouse tapped a paw against the colander.  "It's just lettuce, but seen up close it's rather pretty... Deep and green, like a secret forest."

Tohru peered into the colander.  Her lashes were spun gold in the morning sun.  "You're right, Yuki-kun, it _is_ beautiful."

 "Loveliest thing in the world," the mouse murmured, but he really wasn't talking about lettuce anymore.

[ e n d ]


	14. waiting

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Waiting  ( Momiji, Yuki, and Tohru [Fruits Basket] )  
   
Word Count: 332  
Posted: ?  
Note: Rather pointless.  Will probably be edited again soon. 

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**_  
_**_  
He's such a kid_, Yuki thought idly, watching Momiji yawn from his perch on the railing. It was around ten in the evening, and they were waiting in front of the building where Honda Tohru worked. Thinking that it would only be some time before she arrived, Yuki straightened up a little, violet eyes alight with anticipation.  
  
"Nee, Yuki," Momiji sounded as though he were half asleep, "do you do this every night?"   
  
"Not on Wednesdays. Honda-san doesn't have work on Wednesdays."   
  
"Really?"   
  
"Really."   
  
"Yuki's so nice to To-ru."   
  
Yuki felt his face burn, but fortunately for him, his cousin didn't seem to notice. Momiji gave another yawn and stretched his arms above his head. Colorful plastic bracelets dangling from his wrist jingled merrily as he did so. "But why do you always wait out here? You can always go inside, you know."   
  
"I can't do that," Yuki answered. "I don't want to get in Honda-san's way."   
  
"Oh, To-ru won't mind." Momiji grinned. "She's always happy to see you."   
  
Much to his annoyance, Yuki felt his already flushed face turn a deeper shade of red. "Momiji."   
  
His cousin's smile widened. "Well, you could always wait for her to notice you're here. But one can only do so much waiting, you know."  
  
Yuki stared at him.  
  
"Sometimes," Momiji continued, warming up to his subject, "you have to rush right in, take her by surprise, and let her know it's you." And before Yuki could say anything in turn, Momiji hopped off the railing and dashed up the front steps, arms spread out to welcome the brown-haired girl who had stepped out of the glass doors. "TO-RUU~! Otsukaresama!"  
  
_/_Pyon!/ Yuki watched Tohru drop her satchel in surprise to keep the yellow rabbit in her arms from falling. Giggling, she turned around to retrieve her bag. The rabbit popped his head over her shoulder and gave Yuki a look.   
  
Yuki felt himself smile as he walked up to them. _  
  
He isn't a kid after all_.

[ e n d ]


	15. fall

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Fall ( Fujitaka and Nadeshiko [CCS] )

**Word Count:** 100

**Posted:** ?

**Note:** I seem to have Nadeshiko's eye color wrong.  

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Five minutes to third period and there he was, sprawled on the lawn with her in his arms, dimly aware that he had dropped the books, the globe, the lesson plans (now merrily dancing away in the afternoon breeze). His eyeglasses had slipped down his nose, and his tie was dangling around his neck like a noose. 

And there she was, holding fistfuls of his polo shirt, breathing hard.  The faint pounding of heart through cloth echoed his own. 

"It's alright now," he said, awkwardly.             

Her violet gaze lifted to settle on him, soft as a feather.

Sealing his Fate.

[ e n d ]


	16. breakfast

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Breakfast [ Yoh (Shaman King) ]

**Word Count:** 349

**Note:** Edited 2003.10.14.

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Amidamaru couldn't tell from the way the boy was looking at the box if he was perplexed or annoyed or if he had actually sleepwalked all the way to the pantry, so he decided to make sure. It wouldn't do to have him napping by the counter first thing in the morning. "Yoh-dono?"  
  
"Hmm?" The boy absently said, scratching his stomach through the thin white shirt he had pulled on (inside out, Amidamaru noted idly). "Oh, hi, Amidamaru, g'morning."  
  
"Good morning."  
  
"You're up early." The boy yawned then, stretching arms above his head. "Maaaan it's so cold... Days like these you just want to sleep in, you know?"   
  
The box in his hand waved in the air, caught a bit of sunlight. Amidamaru blinked curiously. _Hottokeeki mikkusu_---  
  
"Hotcakes." Yoh said, still sounding half-asleep. "For breakfast."  
  
"Uuooo," Amidamaru eagerly said, "we've never had that before! Exactly what are 'hottokeeki', Yoh-dono?"  
  
Yoh scrutinized the box for a moment, flipped it to stare at the stack of flapjacks on the cover, then held it up to Amidamaru's face. "They look like this."  
  
"Very interesting! And what do they taste like?"   
  
The familiar lazy grin lifted Yoh's lips. "No idea."  
  
Amidamaru gaped at him.  
  
"I've never had any." The boy yawned again, slowly ambling over to the refrigerator. "I've had fish and miso and rice for breakfast all my life --- which is fine, really, but you know Anna, she gets these ideas..."  
  
Anna, of course. Amidamaru nodded. It all made perfect sense.   
  
Yoh nudged the refrigerator door shut with one knee, arms full of jars and brightly colored packages, then padded back to the counter, set everything down, and let out another yawn.   
  
"Maybe you ought to wash your face first, Yoh-dono."  
  
"No time for that now."  
  
Amidamaru gazed down at the sleepy-eyed boy holding the hotcake mix box in one hand and a frying pan in the other. Then he thought about the girl sleeping upstairs, covers drawn up to her chin.  
  
"It'll all work out, somehow." Yoh murmured, to no one in particular.  
  
In spite of himself, Amidamaru smiled.

[ e n d ]


	17. summer

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Summer [ Yoh (Shaman King) ]

Word Count: 100

Posted: 2003.12.29

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With the afternoon breeze comes the billowing of sheets.  They rise and fall, almost drowning Yoh as he fixes pins on the clothesline.  In the mad flutter of white, he is barely seen: a knee, an elbow, the orange headphones tangled in his hair.  Deft fingers on the wire.  Eyes half-lidded in the sun.  

Sheets playfully flip, danced about by invisible hands.  Then suddenly, the air stills.  There is one last flop, a limp farewell, before sheets settle on the line like good children.  

Yoh stops, drops a clothespin in the basket.

Lifts his chin to smile at the sky.

[ e n d ]


	18. castilla

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Castilla [ Yoh & Anna (Shaman King) ]

Word Count: 274

Posted: 2003.11.29

Notes: 

[1] Anna hates sweets.  
[2] Castilla definitely don't sell that cheap.  
[3] They don't come that small, either.

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The goldfish-shaped ones were hundred yen apiece.  
  
"You don't want castilla?" Yoh asked, incredulously. Anna knew he would ask that question --- he wouldn't think about anything else, not after Manta had given him a piece or two at school the other day. There were much more important things in life than sponge cake, such as budget and being Shaman King First Lady and turning Funbari Onsen into a prime vacation spot, so she sniffed and tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Let's go."  
  
"B-But it's castilla, Anna. Are you sure you want to go home without having any?"  
  
"I'll live. And I won't be giving you money for that, either."  
  
"Ah. It's all right, I think I have some money left over from last week..." He started feeling in his pockets for some change.  
  
"Yoh, we're going home." The festival was making her head throb. All that people and noise and cold night air. Before her, her fiance triumphantly fished out a coin from his back pocket.   
  
He was hopeless.  
  
But he was smiling when he lifted her palm to lay the goldfish on it --- a warm, small brown fish-shaped treat, perched on a tiny square of paper. "It's really good, Anna. Eat it."  
  
"You're the one who wants this."  
  
"It's okay, just eat it."  
  
She popped the goldfish in her mouth. It was sugary and warm and light on the tongue, and all the while Yoh was smiling at her with festival lights in his eyes. She couldn't decide which was sweeter.  
  
"You like it?" He asked, hopefully, after she had swallowed.  
  
"Not bad," she murmured, "not bad at all."

[ e n d ]


	19. 6:30

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6:30 [ Yuki & Tohru (Fruits Basket) ]

Word Count: 289

Posted: 2004.5.29

Note: written for self-imposed 30-minute fic challenge

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She carefully sets the cup of coffee down by his bedside then stares at him, torn between shaking him awake and tucking the sheets more tightly about him. Even in sleep he is effortlessly beautiful. _After a thousand years, here comes our Sleeping Beauty!_ Shigure loved to say as his cousin came down for breakfast looking rumpled and only half-awake. _Sleeping Beauty needs a kiss before his glass of milk!_

He turns on to his side and slips his arms around a pillow, cradling it to his chest like a boy with his favorite teddy bear. He makes an adorable picture, she thinks, but fifteen minutes more and he'll miss his train. "Yuki-kun?"

She gingerly touches his arm. "Yuki-kun? Yuki-kun, it's six thirty."

It does not work.

Bending slightly, she softly speaks in his ear. "Yuki-kun, please wake up."

_Sleeping Beauty needs a kiss before his glass of milk!_

He turns to lie on his back, eyes half-lidded, unfocused. He is still dreaming. Before they could close again, she puts her palm on the patch of bed behind his ear, lowers her face to his, gently kisses his partly open mouth.

There.

It does not work.

She tries again, a bit more firmly this time, then draws back to see his reaction. She sees his eyes open and focus on her face, and even though it is unnecessary, she kisses him again. After a beat, she feels him kiss her back.

Finally.

"G'morning." He whispers against her jaw, softly. "How late am I today?"

"Your train leaves in fifteen minutes." Any other person would nag him out of bed, pull his slack arms, shove him into his clothes, but she would never do it. "And I brought you coffee."

[ e n d ]


	20. goodbye

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Goodbye [ Yuki & Tohru (Fruits Basket) ]

Word Count: 319

Posted: 2004.5.29

Note: written for self-imposed 30-minute fic challenge

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She wouldn't let him turn the hallway lights on.  _It's all right, Yuki-kun._  He watches her as she sits in the genkan, lacing her boots, using a sliver of moon shining through the door to guide her fingers.  In the dusky hallway she looks thinner, smaller.  When she shifts her hold on the laces, her fingers cast faint dancing shadows on the wooden floor. 

He wants to turn the lights on so she could tie her shoes properly.  He wants her to look at him.  He wants to pull her into his arms and bury his face in her hair.  He wants to press his mouth against hers. 

He wants to turn the lights on.

His finger taps against the switch.

"Yuki-kun," she says, still bent over her boots.

He lets his hand fall, guilty.  "No lights, I know."

Her head shoots up a little.  She could be smiling.  "No, I mean...  Kyou-kun and Kagura-san, weren't they supposed to spend the night here?"

There were probably other questions she wanted to ask.  Uncertainty pains him. "The Cat changed his mind."

"...I see."

She bends her head again, pulls the laces of her left boot into a neat ribbon.

He wants to ask her if she wanted Kyou to stay.  He wants her to say it's him she needs.  But he says nothing.  He stays in the shadows as she finishes lacing the second boot, straightens up, brushes fingers against her skirt.  "I'll be taking my leave now, Yuki-kun."

_Stay._  "Sorry I wasn't able to help much today."

"Oh no, you've done so much for me."  She smiles at him, or at least in the direction where she thinks his face is, then bows.  "Thank you very much."

He wants to turn the lights on.  "I'll walk you to the bus stop, Honda-san."

"I'll be all right."  She bows again.  Slinging her bookbag over her shoulder, she opens the door. 

[ e n d ]


	21. arcade

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Arcade [ Hiro & Kisa (Fruits Basket) ]

Word Count: 369 (ack)

Posted: 2004.5.29

Note: written for self-imposed 30-minute fic challenge

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It used to be so easy to be with her, to know what was on her mind when he was with her.  Now everything is too crowded, too noisy, too wrong.

"Not here?" he asks her, feeling his chest tighten at her vehement nod.  "You don't like it here?"

She turns deathly pale at the sudden blast of sound from a nearby machine, then shakes her head.  No.  Not here.  Feeling irritated at himself for making another mistake, he jams his hands into his pockets and marches out of the arcade, aware of her frantic near-stumbling after him. 

It used to be so easy to turn back and take her hand; now he moves on without looking back.  They emerge at a busy street, carefully thread their way through the crowd, then find a safe spot in front of a shop window.  After a few minutes of pointedly staring at passersby, he finally turns to her.  "Sorry," he says, too sharply for an apology.

Her eyes are downcast.

"I thought you wanted to go someplace fun.  Sorry."

"...I-I'm sorry too."

"It's my fault, not yours."

"No...no, I mean..."  Her head bows even lower.  "I know you wanted to play a game, but you weren't able to because... because I was afraid---"

"Don't be sorry."

It used to be so easy to say _if you're not having fun then what's the point?  I want us to have fun together_. 

She lifts her chin and looks at him, and he averts his gaze and keeps his eyes on anything but her.

They used to be so close, they could read each other's mind.

"Hiro-chan," she timidly says after some time, "where do we go next?"

"I'll walk you home."

"But..."

He is convinced she doesn't want to be with him. 

But then her fingers touch his.

"But Hiro-chan," she says slowly, "I want to stay with you a little longer."

He stares at her.

"Is that all right, Hiro-chan?"

It's so easy to look at her and remember the first time he thought, _here is the one person I will want to be with for the rest of my life_.

He smiles, a slow shy one.  "No arcades, I promise."

[ e n d ]


	22. untitled

**Untitled** [ Lillia and Treize (Lillia and Treize) ]

**Note:** Immediately post-volume VI of the novels, or a couple of days before the last scene of the anime happens.

March 7, 2009

_You, come, now. _She grabs a fistful of his collar and hauls him halfway out of his chair, the suddenness of it making him gasp and flail like a fish caught in a net. The rest of the students watch in morbid curiosity.

_It's all your fault. _

_But it's always my fault. _

_Shut **up**._ They make their way down the skewed aisle of desks, miffed Judy dragging her reluctant Punch by his tie. She yanks the door open and marches out with a huff. Before he exits, he deftly hooks a shoe around the edge of the door so it shuts behind them with a click.

The room erupts into confusion.

***

Back at home, punishment is something along the lines of going out on a particularly cold day, walking several miles into the forest, and gathering enough firewood to last a week. He is gratified to find that the teachers at the Capital's institution for higher learning are less Spartan in their approach. "Oh shut up," Lillia snaps. Her long hair flips angrily from side to side as they walk down the corridor with the stacks of books and testing materials they've been asked to carry. "And why are you following me anyway?"

"I don't know where the other reading room is."

"I don't mean that, I mean--"

"Why am I here?"

"Y...yes. And quit finishing my sentences. In fact quit talking to me unless I tell you to."

More and more people step out into the corridor to watch them. When Treize flashes a small apologetic smile at some girls gaping at him, they turn pink and start squealing, clutching at each other excitedly.

Lillia rounds the corner, her hair lashing at the air like a very furious whip.

***

Fiona frames his face with gentle hands, hooking her fingers through the unraveled bandages. _It's all right, not knowing all the answers.  
Do what you think is best. We will all be right behind you._

***

Duty done and she's still walking several steps ahead, arms stiff at her sides.  
The slump of her shoulders and her silence tells him it's not a good time to talk.  
He opens his mouth. He can barely hear himself over the pounding in his chest. "Lillia."

She walks on.

"I wanted to see you."

Her pace slows down.

"Very badly."

She stops.

"That's why I'm here."

They've stopped at a stairwell flushed with sunlight. The open windows let in a cool breeze that ruffles Lillia's hair as she half-turns to him, not quite looking at him.

"You jerk."

He freezes.

"You have...no idea..." She swallows. "I was..."

Wait. This tone of voice is new to him. Risking a kick to the head, he moves closer, stands in front of her, and tries to get a good look at her. When she ducks, he touches her face, tentatively, then with growing determination, nudges it up so that he's looking down at her, and she's looking up at nothing but him.

Her eyes are shining, but she will never cry. Not in front of him. Not if she can help it. "Jerk."

He tries to say it: _the whole time I was falling, I was thinking, I wanted to see you, I had to see you again_ but what he does is lean in and nudge his mouth against her partly open one, too clumsy to qualify as a proper kiss. But Lillia makes a soft oh at the contact, which he takes as encouragement, so he turns his head a bit and catches her mouth again, this time more fully. It's a clumsy but earnest kiss. They touch and separate for air, lean into each other and touch again. He fumbles for her hands, which fall into his grasp with some sort of mindless abandon.

"Cold," Lillia breathes, looking down at their fingers.

"Yours too."

"Miss Schultz?" comes a voice from the top of the stairs. Lillia freezes, but Treize looks up. The third year level history professor is leaning over the banister, squinting over his chalked over spectacles.

***

The corridor is even more crowded with onlookers this time.

Lillia is half-walking, half-running, and Treize has no trouble keeping up, even with the occasional projectile (at one point she wrestled a book out of someone's hands and hurled it at his head). "Lillia!"

"Don't talk to me!"

"Lillia, wait up!"

"Go away!"

(Later on when she's tired of being angry and humiliated, she'll make Treize take her to the dance, just to see how many times she can stomp heels into his feet while they waltzed. To which Treize will comment that Lillia's quite the Spartan herself, which will warrant a half-hearted punch in the gut. Their classmates will have gotten used to their routine by then and will pay them no heed.)

Lillia yanks the classroom door open and stomps inside; Treize deftly lodges a foot in before the door closes, then slips in easily. The door closes behind him with a click.


	23. friday the 13th

**friday the 13th **[ mostly Kagura (Gintama) ]

unedited; June 22, 2008

i.  
It was Friday the 13th. The weather girl said it would be a very, very bad day for little girls who wore their hair up in buns and liked to play rough, which Kagura didn't want to believe, so she asked Gin-chan for a second opinion. Gin-chan said she was safe because she was a little mountain gorilla, not a little girl -- something he probably regretted saying, because by the time Kagura stepped out of the house it was already past three, and Shinpachi was still busy prying Gin-chan from underneath the floorboards.

Sadaharu preferred the couch to playing with her, so she had to go alone.

ii.  
It was very boring, and very hot.

She was all set to go back home when she suddenly spied a familiar figure in the elite Shinsengumi uniform taking an illegal, taxpayer-funded snack break at a _dango_ stall. Without a second thought, she swooped down and, brandishing her umbrella like a pool stick, aimed the tip at the back of his head.

_One Shinsengumi skull in the left corner pocket--_

He ducked.

_Tch!_

The umbrella swiped at air, caught on something that snapped and tore, then scraped the ground heavily, sending up clouds of dust. There was a tremulous pause as the _dango_ seller looked up at his now shredded awning.

"Thank your lucky stars today, bastard," Kagura declared over the _dango_ seller's screeching, "`cause next time I won't be so generous!"

The target, Okita Sougo, only brought a finger to his mouth and delicately sucked the sauce off it.

"Sadist!"

He started on another finger.

"I'm talking to you, sadist!"

He tried another finger for the heck of it.

"Hey, sadist! HE-E-Y SA-DI-I-ST!"

Hefting the umbrella over her shoulder, Kagura marched up to him, tempted to kick him into submission. "What are you, deaf AND sadisti--!?!"

Something sweet and sticky glued her lips together -- he'd shoved the last stick of _dango _inside her mouth, and was now staring up at her with mild curiosity while her brain scrambled to figure out what to do first: chew, choke, or gouge his eyes out.

"If you wanted some, you should've just asked, China." His lazy monotone turned smug. "Or did they forget to teach you manners at the Zoo?"

She grit her teeth, snapping the stick in half, but before she could do the same thing to his spine, he was already brisk walking down the road, hands in his pockets. "Old man," he casually called out to the terrified _dango_ seller, "go to Shinsengumi headquarters and look for Vice-Commander Hijikata. He'll pay for everything, including all the _dango_ that little beast can eat."

She hurled the stall bench at him but he deftly dodged it; it crashed into a group of alien excursionists instead, sending them rolling down the alley like blobby bowling pins.

"Consider it my treat, China." Okita fixed his half-lidded gaze on her reddening face. "Next time I won't be so generous."

iii.  
It was Friday the 13th, and it was a very, very bad day for little girls who wore their hair up in buns and liked to play rough. The _dango_ seller packed up and fled before she harrass him for free snacks, and when she got home there was no Gin-chan, no Shinpachi, no Sadaharu; only a short note on the office desk, and the gaping hole in the floor where Gin-chan's head used to be.

There was nothing to eat for dinner so she climbed into the closet where she slept and went through her small stack of empty _konbu_ boxes, opening the flaps one by one and pressing her nose in as far as it could go.

Then she curled up into a tight ball and dreamed that Gin-chan and Shinpachi were peering into the closet, talking about Friday the 13th and unlucky little girls. Gin-chan said that unlucky little girls will have their fortunes reversed at the stroke of midnight, and as he said this he was smiling, and Shinpachi was smiling, and behind them Sadaharu was chewing on the mat and smiling, and as the cabinet door slowly slid shut, Kagura was smiling as well because she knew it was going to be all right in the morning.

iv.  
And it was.


	24. snow

**snow** [Hitsugaya, Hinamori (Bleach]  
September 8, 2007

Hitsugaya was probably the last person who'd be impressed by her handiwork (seeing as he wielded ice with the same ease one would use his own limbs), but Hinamori thought she did a good job this time, and decided to seek his opinion.

Hitsugaya crossed his arms and stared at the array of cheerful-looking snow sculptures under the tree.

"It's the Gotei 13," Hinamori pointed out, after minutes of silence. "Can you see the resemblance? See, that's Aizen-taichou, and that's me, and that one's you, and--"

The furrow between his eyebrows deepened. "These are people?"

"H-HITSUGAYA-KUN!!"

"Seriously?"

"You're so MEAN!"

He turned to her then, swiftly catching her hands before they messed with his hair. A bit of a struggle ensued--

(this was an old routine, childish roughhousing, where she used to win all the time because he let her)

--and Hinamori wheezed, pink-cheeked with effort. Hitsugaya had forced her hands open, and was now looking at her fingers in dismay. "They're freaking frozen! Where the hell are your gloves?"

"I didn't have time to get them!"

"Dumbass," he grumbled, but before she could say anything in return, he bent his head over her palms and blew softly into them.

There was a small quiver, then one of the ice sculptures dropped an arm.


	25. the house

**The House** [ Fujitaka (CCS) ]

v.1, 20070614

a/n: N years ago I tried writing a series about Fujitaka, and one of the ideas I had for it was, Fujitaka and his children moved to Tomoeda only after Nadeshiko's death.

Fujitaka watched the moving van disappear around the bend before he returned to the living room to pick up the last box and his car keys. Now that the house was bare, he could clearly hear the strange rumbling sound, the grinding of wheel against bare wooden floor; it was his son, steering his baby sister around in her pram. Just as Fujitaka looked up, a young boy and a bright pink pram appeared from behind the kitchen door and crossed the hall into another room. Whirr whirr whirr. Out of the room and into another. Whirr whirr whirr.

_I would love a house big enough for children to run around in._

"Touya-kun," Fujitaka called out, "we're about to leave."

Touya soon emerged with the pram, inside which baby Sakura was fully absorbed in chewing on her favorite stuffed bear. Fujitaka smiled at them. "Well, shall we?"

There was only one box left to carry, the most important one -- magazine clippings, framed photographs, negatives, polaroid shots, scribbles. Little notes. Small pieces of paper left on his desk on the sly, unrolled then pressed in between the pages of his teaching manual. _To my favorite professor: let's go home together! I will be waiting near the gate. P.S. I love you so muc__h._

Fujitaka carefully locked the front door while Touya, half-climbing into the car, busied himself with strapping Sakura into her baby seat. Fujitaka then looked at the roof, the closed windows, the washed out, uneven stone steps, the small garden with its makeshift swing, then walked back to the car. The new town was called Tomoeda. It would take them five hours to get there.

"Father," Touya quietly said as the engine started, "it's saying goodbye."

"Hmm?"

"The house."

Fujitaka glanced at his dark-haired son intently staring out the window, then gazed at the picture frame lying face down on the dashboard. "Can you say thank you for us?"

Touya's eyes closed slightly.

"Say thank you," Fujitaka said, as he backed the car out of the driveway, "thank you, for seeing us through so many happy years."

After the car made its way down the road, in the small garden of the now empty house, the makeshift swing started swaying to and fro, then as suddenly as it moved, hung perfectly still.


End file.
